The present invention relates to dosage indicating trays or similar holders for individual solid medications such as pills or capsules. More particularly, the invention relates to a pill dispenser for dispensing daily medication, prestored for a week.
Many forms of dispensing containers and other holders for pills have been proposed and commercially introduced. In general, such containers have been relatively complicated or expensive when intended for holding a plurality of different medications to be dispensed at various times over a period of several days. For example, separate fabrication and assembly of a number of relatively movable parts is required in many dispensing pill holders. Others are limited in their ability to provide for the flexible medication dispensing schedules sometimes required by patients.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,080 discloses a dosage indicating pill tray having individual compartments for holding pills. Each compartment is rectangular and arranged in a rectangular format of seven columns and a plurality of rows. Each of the columns is labeled with the day of the week, and each row is labeled with a fixed time of the day. This patent clearly demonstrates the significant drawbacks of the prior art in which the times at which pills are to be dispensed during the day cannot be varied. In the '080 patent, pills can only be dispensed at breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,247 to Majka discloses a pill dispenser which provides a storage space in which pills may be placed. Each storage space corresponds to one day of a given month. This device once again demonstrates the significant drawback of the prior art which does not provide for the administration of medication at varying times during a given day.
Other patents dealing with devices for chronologically dispensing tablets include U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,611; U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,603; U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,559; U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,384; U.S. Pat. No. 3,744,867 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,190. None of these patents appear to be as closely related to the instant invention, however, as U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,080 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,247.
With the drawbacks of the prior art in mind, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a unit dose medication dispenser in which medication can be stored for a week at a time.
A further object is to provide a holder for solid medications in which the time of day at which medication is to be dispensed can be varied.
Another object is to provide a pill tray having individual compartments for holding a week's supply of medication in which the time of day at which medication can be dispensed can be conveniently varied.
Other objects will in part be obvious from the following description of the invention.